Although the film is about Paige’s unlikely rise to TV stardom, what grabs us most is the eclectic Knight family running a scrappy professional wrestling gym on a shoestring. It might be the biggest missed reality-TV show opportunity ever.

Your enjoyment will hinge entirely on whether you think the album is a masterpiece or a bore.

Us is more expansive and messier, a Rorschach blot of a movie, riffing on primal fears and a raft of ’80s references. Is it a pointed cultural take or just a gleeful scare-fest? It depends on what you choose to take from it.

When it comes time for a Hollywood remake, Depp would make a great Mels.

The very German lack of emotion is so acute it can be hard to tell when Hausner’s playing for laughs, but Friedel is hilariously — if morbidly — tedious as the tortured writer whose pickup line is, “Would you care to die with me?”

Has relevance in the world as we now know it.

Mandoki never passes up a chance to increase the schmaltz level, but that doesn't lessen the impact of this harrowing account of a hellish childhood.

Moving at a leisurely pace, Cavalacade is primarily of historical interest for everyone except Coward completists and hard-core Anglophiles.

Solid family entertainment, a handsomely crafted and well-acted new film version of Natalie Babbitt's classic 1975 children's book.

Its portrait of adolescence seems so authentic that it puts most Hollywood products to shame.

Extremely well-made (and evenhanded) film.

Cox brilliantly underplays Avery, Sizemore is perfect as the arrogant dad, and the three boys (Noel Fisher, Kyle Gallner and Shiloh Fernandez) are right on pitch. Red the dog's pretty wonderful, too.

With hero flicks getting as weighty and self-important as “The Handmaid’s Tale,” it’s a relief to watch one let its hair down. These gloomy films could use more exclamation points.

A suspenseful work using nonprofessional actors and co-written with an Albanian filmmaker, shows Marston is no one-hit wonder.

Cool graphics and music, combined with jittery camera work, keep the film's energy level high. Who knew Scrabble could be so exciting?

Beyond the requisite lessons, there are some witty touches.

Pietro Sibille is exceptional as Santiago, and the rest of the cast turn in dynamic performances.

Maggie Gyllenhaal goes from caring to creepy in this Netflix release.

I haven't seen a timelier or more important film this year, and the film's passion for school choice could hardly be more warranted. Along with documentaries such as "The Lottery" and "Waiting for 'Superman,' " the film comes with a background sound of the ice of inertia cracking.

Dreamcatcher is a lark probably best enjoyed by 12-year-olds -- or anyone still able to get in touch with their inner 12-year-old.

Surprisingly charming and even witty match for the best of Hollywood's comic-book adaptations.

The ruefully funny Jack Goes Boating, which, refreshingly, takes a generous view of its flawed characters, is a must for us many Hoffman fans.

Even parents might find themselves having fun.

The line between honey and syrup is a fine one, I'll grant you, but "Best Exotic Marigold" was on the wrong side of it. Quartet carries a noble glow, as serene and beautiful as sunset.

This is the third feature by the three gifted stars, who deftly pull off hilarious, nearly wordless slapstick routines reminiscent of Jacques Tati, Buster Keaton and Jerry Lewis.

Breathtakingly filmed (lots of slow-motion) by Wang Yu, but then it would be difficult to go wrong when your star is one of the world's most beautiful women.

Overflows with psychological intrigue, something often missing from such offerings.

An amusing side dish to the sober political documentaries flooding the art houses, The Yes Men effectively uses high farce to mock the status quo as a way of questioning it.

The labor of love of South African brothers Craig and Damon Foster, who directed and photographed this intriguing documentary.

Sophisticated entertainment of the less-is-more school.

It’s not without its quirks (and occasional pacing issues), but Sister Aimee is a true original — apparently, just like its namesake.

Most importantly, Halloween recovers its long-lost gravitas and self-respect. It makes us remember why we loved Carpenter’s original in the first place: It was artful, frightening and supremely well-acted — not “Scream 4.”

This time, ‘Zilla and Kong face off in ginormous Hong Kong — a destruction junkie’s dream battlefield. Neon, chrome and oversize animals clobbering each other. Also around is another adversary whose reveal will have fans drooling. See Godzilla vs. Kong on the big screen if you can.

Clandestine Childhood is the impressive first feature by Argentine director Benjamín Avila.

The funniest movie of Smith's I've seen. It's "When Harry Did Sally."

You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy Divan, an absolutely charming first-person documentary about a young ex-Hasidic woman determined to re-connect with her roots on her own terms.

The upstart Sapphires are a smash to watch as they cover soul tunes like “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “What a Man” and “I Can’t Help Myself.”

As nutty as you'd expect when two of our most eccentric auteurs join forces.

Eloquent testimony about the moral ambiguity of war from veterans, human rights officials and Iraqi refugees, several of whom worked as extras on "Three Kings."

Call this a profile in courage.

Ultimately “Mad About the Boy” is much like Bridget herself: endearing, silly, messy, wacky, kind. I like it… just as it is.

M. Night Shyamalan’s new thriller, Old, is campy, poorly written, candy-colored and subtle as Eurovision.

J.Lo has delivered an over-the-top song-and-dance camptacular, both gravely serious and deliriously funny, providing one cuckoo moment after another.

While not totally original, transitions to live action with real guts and reinvention.

The director has listed Jean-Luc Godard as an influence, which explains the movie's French New Wave exuberance.

Some will accuse Our Friend of being sentimental, and it is, but not in an “Oh no! The golden retriever was kidnapped!” way. It’s subtle. The wisdom of Brad Ingelsby’s script is that Dane’s assistance is unnoticeable until very late in the movie. His acts of kindness sneak up on you.

Freddie Mercury may have had the better voice, but it’s Elton John who gets the better movie. Rocketman, director Dexter Fletcher’s trippy new biopic about the flamboyant rocker is braver, deeper and more enlightening than last year’s slobbering piece of Queen propaganda “Bohemian Rhapsody” (which he also partly directed).

Weisberg is nonjudgmental, allowing his subjects to deliver the message that, for far too many people, the American dream is more of a nightmare.

By the end I was getting a bit antsy from the rambling script and direction.

The smartest movie to come out this year, and it could hardly be better cast.

The found-footage disaster flick Into the Storm is “Twister’’ for dummies, but by no means is that an insult. The new film is enormous fun if you’re in the right mood.

Nearly as good as the average episode of TV’s “Friday Nights Lights,” which makes it better than most movies and one of the better sports films of recent years.

If the title makes you wince, know the movie is a lot better than it deserves to be. You’ll actually care about what happens to the prickly blue dude, even if you never cared about getting to zone seven.

An oddity: an upbeat film about a cemetery.

The Nees lean toward the rat-a-tat comedy of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” presumably knowing they can’t match the profundity of “Huckleberry Finn.” (Who could?)

The sensitive subject matter is handled discreetly by writer-director Chin-yen Yee, who never lets the story sink into exploitation or finger-pointing.

The film shows how quiet exteriors can mask deep interior lives, and how art feeds those lives. The view of art is richly intellectual, sometimes enthralling. But I confess, I liked Museum Hours best for answering a question I’ve always had: What is that guard thinking?

Director Jay Karas doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel as he puts this odd couple through the paces of getting in shape and reconciling old wounds, but he’s helped by some laugh-out-loud quirk in Gene Hong’s screenplay, nice comic chemistry between the two leads and supporting players like J.K. Simmons.

Hugely entertaining because director Lasse Hallstrom and screenwriter William Wheeler have greatly embellished the "truth" in Irving's book about the hoax.

The plot has all the ingredients of a soap opera, but Bani-Etemad, who has been making movies since the '80s, is able to make it much more.

This is first and foremost a farce, not unlike Nichols' "The Birdcage."

With Treeless Mountain, Kim establishes herself as a first-class filmmaker.

Not as aca-mazing as “Pitch Perfect” (which made my 10-best list for 2012), the follow-up should have been cut by 10 or 15 minutes. First-time director Elizabeth Banks (who returns as a snarky announcer) doesn’t have the zippy comic timing of the first film’s helmer, Jason Moore.

This is mostly a sad and bloody tale, as the Panthers are decimated first by the machinations of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, and then by dissension in their own ranks.

If Michael Fassbender wears a giant papier-mâché head for most of a film, is he still mesmerizing? Happily, yes.

At its best, Romantics Anonymous is a love letter to everyone who's ever felt hopelessly awkward about being in a relationship, which is just about all of us.

A South Korean romantic comedy by Hong Sang-soo, who has been likened in style to France's venerable Eric Rohmer.

In Abuse of Weakness, Breillat, notorious for her sexually explicit films, casts the excellent Isabelle Huppert as her avatar, Maud, to tell the tale.

An exuberant if not always brilliantly crafted adaptation of the campy ABBA musical.

It would be easy to dismiss House of the Sleeping Beauties as a lewd male fantasy, but that would be ignoring the German film's deeper purpose as - in the words of the director, Vadim Glowna - a meditation on "transition, remembrance, mourning, guilt, loneliness, sex and death, eroticism and dying."

My main beef is with Spielberg’s choice to leave out his own work, both as producer and director: “I didn’t corner the ’80s market,” he told Entertainment Weekly. But yeah, he kind of did.

A cheerfully trashy, dead-on spoof of the B-movie genre, boasts the kind of cheese-tastic effects, overcooked dialogue and rigid performances that would make Ed Wood proud.

IF you ask me, Shane Acker's post-apocalyp tic animated film 9 is better than the live-ac tion flick "District 9." Beyond their similar titles, these sci-fi social commentaries are both expanded from shorts under the sponsorship of a world-class director.

Among cheesy sci-fi movies meant to make you think, I'll take Surrogates over "District 9." Both are highly derivative, but in the course of recombining the basic chromosomes of "Blade Runner," "The Matrix" and especially "I, Robot," Surrogates nudges the robo-thriller in an interesting direction.

Rambles a bit, but it's a real slice of New York history.

Director Trey Edward Shults made his debut last year with the indie drama “Krisha,” and this one’s a very different take on family dynamics — not at all your typical horror film.

Reaches its climax on the main bathing day, with a throng of naked holy men leading the charge into the Ganges. You would be forgiven for thinking you're watching a hot July day at Coney Island.

The result puts a human face on Derrida, and makes one of the great minds of our times interesting and accessible to people who normally couldn't care less.

A youthful, and often funny, piece of filmmaking. You might never expect that its director is 73 years old.

Overall, it's a hand-tailored job in a marketplace filled with off-the-rack movies.

The Woman is disturbing, lurid and perverse, but that isn't necessarily bad: Horror buffs, especially fans of Ketchum, will be overcome with joy and excitement.

Easily one of the most enjoyable big-budget Hollywood movies to come along in a while, Rock Star is an unexpected pleasure.

A muscular, endlessly twisty homage to film noir capers like "The Asphalt Jungle."

One of the most beautiful per formances I've seen this year is given by Blanca Engstrom in the Swedish coming-of-age charmer The Girl.

Doesn't always make sense, and you cannot always tell what is real and what is imaginary, but viewers will be having too much zonked-out fun to care.

Farhadi brings keen discernment to this unraveling marriage, and a third-act revelation packs a wallop.

Slovenian-born writer-teacher Slavoj Zizek, narrator of the movie "A Pervert's Guide to the Cinema," provides the most entertainment.

Yu presents a compelling, somewhat disturbing portrait of the artist, who in 2000 was the subject of a major exhibit that toured the world.

It features Sean Penn in a mesmerizing portrayal of the would-be hijacker.

An expensive demonstration that all the spectacular effects in the world aren't enough to make a great film - but it's worth seeing for that stunning half-hour alone.

This comedy soars squarely on small moments and big jokes.

The rare sequel that is better than the original.

It's actually the surprisingly compelling plot and the often hilarious dialogue that keep you watching this tale of passion and murder in a Samurai militia unit - not the beautiful scenery or the elegant color palette.

This is Beatty’s first film in 15 years, a project he’s been working on for 40 years, and it’s immensely pleasing to see him in such fine form. Or, as his obsessive-compulsive subject would say, such fine form. Such fine form.

Compelling documentary.

Najafi stages action scenes with an intense, queasy beauty and elevates what is in its outlines a routine crime drama to near-operatic proportions.

A unique, priceless portrait of the now legendary leader, and of his beautiful country when it was in the grip of a disastrous civil war.

Director Mikael Hafstrom - the gentleman responsible for last year's Jennifer Aniston bomb "Derailed" - keeps us guessing as he confidently builds suspense.